Sunday, 24 September 2023

Top 30 in 1993 Reviewed: Week 39

Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 30 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.

Here is the Top 40 in full.

Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.

Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.

So this is the top 30 from this week in 1993 with my verdict on each record:


This was the only Top 40 hit for Cranes. Not a band I'm familiar with, but reading up about them I gather they're known amongst the fans of shoegaze music. Not my cup of tea though, I've already forgotten how the song goes.

Verdict - Rubbish


I've not heard this since 1993 and when I played the video it wasn't how I remembered it. Then I played a dance version which is how I remember it sounding. It was the only Top 40 hit for Aftershock and maybe that was for the best as it would have been difficult for them to better this.

Verdict - Good


This was the debut single from Jamiroquai in 1992 but failed to reach the Top 40 when first released. It became the last Top 40 hit from the "Emergency on Planet Earth" album. It's pleasant enough but doesn't reach the heights of previous or indeed future efforts and doesn't quite have enough about it to make it truly good.

Verdict - OK


I don't remember this re-entering the Top 40 in 1993, if anything because I'm not sure whether I even knew it at the time given there was a bit of Motorhead/Radiohead confusion amongst my peers at the time, but more on that when the time comes. I do like this record, it's fast and aggressive whilst still sounding like a song. 

Verdict - Good


The 2nd Top 40 hit from Worlds Apart, a boy band few people remember. Like their debut singles, this is a cover. It's also the 4th version of this song to make the Top 40 and it wasn't the last. It's predictably crap.

Verdict - Rubbish


The lead song from this EP is "Boom Shack-A-Lak" which is the tune Apache Indian is best known for. I guess I'm not overly keen on other Apache Indian records because none of them are anywhere near as good as this.

Verdict - Good


Being a UB40 record that was the follow up to a cover, one could be forgiven for expecting this to be a cover of the Stevie Wonder record. It isn't though, it's a UB40 original. Like with many UB40 records it's nothing groundbreaking but it's very easy on the ears.

Verdict - Good


When this song came out and I was a big rock fan I concluded that Lenny Kravitz only had one good song in him with "Are You Gonna Go My Way". I don't think that anymore, he has a handful of decent tunes but this isn't one of them. Too much of  ballad for my liking.

Verdict - Rubbish


What I find amusing about this song is that in the chorus they sing "I'm only one woman" but there are 3 of them. To add to the amusement the song was written by men. This record does give me a bit of 90s nostalgia without being anything spectacular. 

Verdict - OK


This one gets off to a promising start sounding like it could almost be an old Motown record. As you get further into the record though it starts to illustrate that the replication of older sounds doesn't really work. It was written by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs of St Etienne which sort of makes sense. I like St Etienne, they've written some great tunes over the years but at the same time they're no Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Verdict - OK


If memory serves me correctly (and it does tend to mislead me) this was the last dance record I truly got into before I became strictly rock and anti-pop. It treads that fine line where it's clearly a commercial dance record but is credible at the same time. 

Verdict - Good


I remember this one very well. The first thing that springs to mind is poundland Stereo MC's. Then I read up about Stakka Bo and this song and the comparisons with Stereo MC's are being made. Stakka Bo is Swedish so I assumed this was one from the Denniz Pop production line, but it isn't. Might as well be though.

Verdict - Rubbish


I keep mentioning those unwritten rules at the time where if you were a rock music fan then bar a small number of exceptions you shouldn't like pop music. This was the one pop song the person who told me of said rules liked, though I would say it's more soft rock than pop. Either way I could enjoy this record knowing it was acceptable to like. 

Verdict - Good


When this record topped the charts I remember somebody saying to me that I must be pleased, unaware I'd long moved on from being a Queen fan by this point. Even if I was still a Queen fan though I'm not sure I would have liked this. It's basically Freddie Mercury's voice put over some generic eurodance crap.

Verdict - Rubbish


I'm not a fan of 2 Unlimited, it was dance music for the pop crowd. At least with "No Limit" and "Tribal Dance" they were catchy, this one is very much album filler but with all the annoying elements of eurodance still in there.

Verdict - Rubbish


It seems a bit of a rarity to hear a Mariah Carey record that isn't a dreary ballad, but here is one. I recall at the time thinking it's rather uplifting for a Mariah Carey song. That doesn't make it a good song though, it sounds pretty naff and has her annoying screeching in it.

Verdict - Rubbish


Kate Bush started out in the 70s and was still having iconic hits during the 80s. Nobody talks about Kate Bush in the 90s though. This was the lead single from her one and only 90s studio album "The Red Shoes". Like with many artists who have been around a while, it isn't a patch on her older stuff.

Verdict - Rubbish


When I first heard this song a few times I asked someone what it was and they said "Creep" by Motorhead. All I really knew about Motorhead at the time was that they were a notoriously heavy band, so I thought this had to be one of their softer records. It wouldn't be long before I'd discover it was Radiohead not Motorhead, and some of the music Radiohead would go on to make is almost the opposite extreme of Motorhead. Anyway this is possibly the only Radiohead song I like.

Verdict - Good


This originally charted in 1990 and was on the soundtrack to the film "Pretty Woman". It entered the charts again in 1993 because of the TV premiere of the film. I find it somewhat baffling that a 3 year old film making it's TV debut was such a big thing, particularly as the film was shit. I like the song though.

Verdict - Good


One thing I remember when this record was out was that I'd learned the rules that if you were a rock and metal fan you weren't supposed to like anything that wasn't rock and metal. I remember that because I couldn't help but like this record despite those rules. I like the way the pause in the record gets longer each time.

Verdict - Good


I find it strange that The Wonder Stuff had a Top 10 hit as late as 1993. They certainly weren't a band my peers were still talking about by then. It's the lead single from "Construction for the Modern Idiot" which was their last studio album from before they split. You can hear influences from the alternative rock sound that had been getting more popular since we'd last heard from them. No bad thing, but it does lack the wow factor to making it truly good.

Verdict - OK


I have Depeche Modes greatest hits album, but the version of "Condemnation" on there is different to this single mix. They were never afraid to try something different and this certainly is different. However I can't help but think the version of their greatest hits album is much better.

Verdict - OK


I just assumed most people only remember Haddaway for "What Is Love" but 16 million views of this follow up hit on YouTube suggests otherwise. I'm not completely anti-Eurodance, there are a handful of records I like but most of it is dreadful and this is one of those.

Verdict - Rubbish


When this record first came out, not only did I think this was a great song, I also thought Bitty McLean was a great name. This led me incorporate his name into the lyrics when I sang along just so I could acknowledge what a great name it is.

Verdict - Good


I remember this record being on the list of non-rock music records I secretly liked at the time. As I'm going through the weeks I'm finding I like a lot of the reggae pop records that were coming out in 1993. 

Verdict - Good


A few years after this came out I was flicking through the music channels and saw this video playing and it brought back memories of how I liked this record, but I couldn't remember what it was. It was being played on "The Lick" so didn't say what it was at the end of the video, but I eventually found out. The chants of "SWV" should have given it away, which was being done by a then unknown Pharrell Williams. 

Verdict - Good


The biggest hit for M People which also made the charts in America. I would also say this is the most pop record they'd made to this point as well. They knew what they were doing making records like this, but it's not for me.

Verdict - Rubbish


I remember when this record came out it created a divide at school between the rock crowd and everyone else. It was singled out as an example of a crappy pop record by the rock crowd but everybody else seemingly loved it. Putting all that aside, my first thought when hearing this was have Snap changed their name to Culture Beat. 

Verdict - Rubbish


I think this was the last Pet Shop Boys record I admitted to liking at the time. I remember the rules that the rock crowd weren't supposed to like pop music but a small number of exceptions were allowed and this was one of those for me. It wouldn't be long before even a small number of exceptions wasn't acceptable.

Verdict - Good


I couldn't stand this record at the time, it's always irritated me. Then when I started going out on a Saturday night I'd hear this every week which made me hate it even more. My drunken self down the students union would dance to all sorts of rubbish, but I'd always leave the dancefloor when this came on.

Verdict - Rubbish

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 15.5/30, or 52%. I don't know how we managed to stay above 50% given the quality of new entries this week.
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